Clinics & Services
Antenatal / Maternity Care
The midwives offer a range of antenatal checks and advice. A health visitor or community staff nurse will offer to see you during your pregnancy. For more information on the phases of your pregnancy, and the first 12 months with your new baby click here for the readysteadybaby link.
Asthma Clinic
If you have been diagnosed with asthma, you will be regularly sent a letter inviting you for an asthma review. Please make an appointment with one of our Practice Nurses. Our Practice Nurse also provides an asthma review service for our patients age 20 years and over. Please telephone the practice and state you wish an appointment for an asthma review so that our reception staff can allocate an appropriate time slot.
Bowel Screening
All men and women aged 50–74 are invited for bowel screening. Bowel screening involves taking a simple test at home every two years. Bowel screening has recently been the subject of an advertising campaign across Scotland as part of the Detect Cancer Early programme. Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in Scotland. Every year in Scotland, almost 4,000 people are diagnosed with the disease. Although bowel cancer is common, it is also highly treatable if detected early. If we find bowel cancer early enough, there’s more than a 90% chance of successful treatment. The sooner it’s caught, the easier it is to treat.
If you require a screening kit, contact the Scottish Bowel Screening Helpline on 08000 121 833, or you can also get information from their website.
Cervical Screening (“Smear” test)
In Scotland, all women between the ages of 25 and 64 are offered a cervical screening test. Women aged 25-49 are invited every three years, and women aged 50-64 are invited every five years. Testing every three to five years gives very good protection against developing cervical cancer and minimises the number of tests a woman has during her lifetime. Click here for more information.
Please make an appointment with one of our nursing team. It would be most helpful that you advise the receptionist that you are attending for a smear to allow the correct allocation of time for your smear to be taken.
Chaperones
There are occasions when patients need to be assessed by a doctor which might involve intimate examinations.
This Practice is committed to putting patients at ease whenever possible, and if you wish a chaperone to be present during your examination please do not hesitate to ask the doctor.
It may not be possible for such a chaperone to be provided immediately and you might have to return for the examination to be carried out at a mutually convenient time.
Trust is important in the relationship between GP and patient and we would, at all times, wish you to feel able to ask for a chaperone, should you require it.
Child Health Surveillance “6 week check”
We believe it is important to find out any problems there may be with a child’s health as early as possible. The child health surveillance checks are available with health visitors and GPs by appointment. Health visitors may carry these out at home or the surgery. Babies under 1 year can be weighed at the Well Baby Drop-in at Marchmont St. Giles, 1a Kilgraston Road, on Mondays between 10.15 – 11.45 (last weights at 11.30). These are long appointments and with all appointments, it is ESSENTIAL that you let us know if you cannot attend.
Contraception & Family Planning
See the above tab
Diabetes Clinic
If you have been diagnosed with diabetes and attend the practice for your care, you will be sent an invitation to attend for a review appointment on a regular basis with our Practice Nurses. Please telephone the practice and state you wish an appointment for a diabetic review so that our reception staff can allocate an appropriate time slot.
DMARD Monitoring
DMARDs (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs) are a group of medicines that are used to ease the symptoms of certain autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). They work by by blocking certain chemicals involved in the inflammation process and therefore reduce the damaging effect of the disease on the joints. DMARDs are also used to treat other conditions – for example, chronic inflammatory skin or bowel disease. However, this page only relates to DMARDs when they are used to treat RA.
What are the side effects of DMARDs?
It is not possible to list all the adverse effects of each DMARD, but, as with all medicines, there are a number of side-effects that have been reported, and some of which are serious. Serious side-effects are rare, but include damage to the liver and blood-producing cells. Therefore, on recommendations with the Lothian hospital specialists, your GP will make sure you are monitored correctly before safely issuing a prescription. We also ask that each patient follows the guidelines, which allow safe prescribing by your GP.
Ear Checks and Syringing (currently suspended)
Click on the "Ear Care " link on the further information bar at the bottom of the page for more information.
Wart Clinic (currently suspended)
Click on the "warts and veruccas" link on the further information bar at the bottom of the page for more information.
Specimens
To improve infection control, we have changed our policies on patients and their carers handling bodily fluid specimens (urine, faecal, sputum). We ask that all patients and/or carers speak with a clinician before handing a sample. A sample that is handed in without clinician authorisation or labelled may be discarded.
Please note that due to increased volume of calls for appointments at the start of the day, we ask patients to call after 1100 for any test results